Sy Reene

Is this a MUP-only discussion? OP used one as an example, but thought this was more generally needing to pass someone who's on foot?

rsbob 

When I run in the street or sidewalk, I run the same direction as traffic for the same reason I cycle the same direction as traffic. People making right turns don’t always look right, just left for oncoming traffic. No one in a car gets the benefit of a doubt whether on wheels or running.

tkamd73 

Agreed!
Tim

wolfchild

One thing that I learned from those two last threads about bells is the extreme amount of hostility towards using a bell or putting a bell on your bicycle...Seriously I had no idea that so many cyclists would be so hostile toward bells.

wolfchild

All of our housing projects out in the suburbia have sidewalks and the newer ones also have MUPS which run alongside of the roads. There is really no reason why pedestrians or joggers should be out on the roads.

wolfchild

And yet so many cyclists still fail to use this simple and commonly understood way of announcement and instead choose to shout and yell all kinds of confusing jargon at other people...or do something much worse like failing to announce themselves and buzz other people with very close passes.

indyfabz

Yeah. It's one thing to have a personal preference to not use a bell As a general rule, I a not a bell person, although I did install and use one on the Bike Friday that I sued to commute with many years ago but almost never ride now.), but I don't get the hostility towards the concept of installing and using a bell. So much anti-tollingism.

burnthesheep

I'll take a stab and give a few reasons..............I do the bell.

1. I have found my 1:1 is it gets to headphone zombies better than a voice.
2. "left, right" can confuse people. I'm on your left? I want you to go left? Not everyone does the correct thing by proceeding on the right side of a trail. Not all people "get it", and you can't assume they all do.
3. Voice presumes 100% language compatibility. Derecha, izquierda, left, right.........ad nauseum. Bell.........universal
4. Bell mostly means bike. This gives a better predictive reaction by the user in front. If you hear a voice, is it a runner, biker, roller blader......etc...
5. If you're going to be able to exceed a trails speed limit for appreciable time.........try to mind the trail volume and consider another route at higher volumes.
6. Lobby your municipality for more commuter paths with higher speeds and less mixed use if you feel so inclined. Most US MUPs are rec trails, not commuter paths. Meaning dogs, walkers, grandma, kids.

PimpMan

When there's girl walking and i ride behind her if i like her shape and want to see her face i just tap bell slightly making 1 short gentle ring and most girl look around and then we meet sights, i smile ride next to her and ask her for a phone number. or if she not my type i just ride on. So yeah bell is very useful.

You need to select a proper classic retro bell, not this modern silly sounding ones that dont even work same way as in the past.

phughes

You can simply ride safely around them, without telling them. Slow down, and give them room.

njkayaker

While I have my preference, I don't care too much that other people prefer to yell.

What's interesting to me is the awful, nutty arguments against bells.

And the terrible arguments these people present!

njkayaker

Whatever this thread might be about, what you said doesn't make much sense.

This makes no sense.

• Doing stuff in the road is not the same as doing stuff on a MUP.
• Honking isn't the same as ringing a bell.
• If the runner is running against traffic, what extra purpose would honking do?

njkayaker

This is kind of an exception to "street" generally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_street

Streets tend to be much, much wider than MUPs.

livedarklions

This is one of those dumb parallels that people make--there's a very distinct reason bicyclists passing on a MUP should make noise--it's not a road, so people are not being careful about moving back and forth between lanes. I've tried it without announcing and all I got was a bunch of people swerving right in front of me as I was trying to pass. Saying a couple words prevents that.

I rarely see a jogger wander blindly into a traffic lane on a road, I see them shift to the left side of the MUP without looking a lot.

Cyclist0108

This was originally a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

livedarklions

I do it very politely because it's very easy to have what you think is adequate clearance suddenly disappears when quantum discusser gets distracted enough to start hopping around the far side of the path.

I find people get a lot more startled when I pass them without making noise than when I give them a polite "passing on your left". I also get thanked a lot, so someone's not seeing it as a hostile act.

livedarklions

I don't tell people I'm coming so they'll jump out of my way. It's to prevent them from jumping into my way without looking. I've had that happen enough that a little wasted breath is not a big deal. Especially when I'm passing someone on their bike--six feet of clearance can be covered very fast in a swerve.

livedarklions

If I'm riding through their living room, I think I'd ring the doorbell first.

Seriously, where do you think bikes passing that close to a pedestrian is likely to happen other than on a MUP or a sidewalk?

njkayaker

More weirdness.

No one has said one should use a bell all the time.

???

Using a bell doesn't require not riding at an appropriate speed. Certainly, using a bell isn't a license to ride at an inappropriate speed.

Do you realize that you can startle people while passing at an appropriate speed? (Apparently, you don't.)

Weird. Just weird.

Who is expecting this?

Sy Reene

I've been on plenty of not wide county roads, and number of instances of there needing to fit a jogger, a bike and car traffic, all on the same side of the road. Actually in these instances I'd love it if the jogger was going with traffic; coming at me, there's no way to slow down enough (ie jogging speed) until safe to pass.

How bout bikes passing bikes? Ring your bell or yell, or say nothing if there's plenty of room. At least for road bikes, they're really no wider than a pedestrian. Is your choice of method different on a road vs a MUP?

HarborBandS

I was a bell person, then I switched to the "on your left" vocal alert, and now am back to being a bell person. The "on your left" warning just seems to be too confusing for many people. At the end of the day, I just want to alert the pedestrian or slower cyclist that I am nearby, and make sure they know to not make any sudden moves to the left side of the path. People comparing this to a car horn are being utterly ridiculous. It's a nice, pleasant dinging sound. Nothing like the jarring whale of a car horn. And I certainly prefer not shouting if I am tired from a particularly long ride.

The Illinois Prairie Path runs through my town, and it is one of the original crushed limestone "rail trails" in the U.S., with 65 miles combined and connections to other trail systems. While it is certainly a MUP, many of the western parts of the trail are very sparse with walkers and joggers, as it can get a bit remote at times. Many people around here will actually refer to it as "the bike path", even though it is certainly used by a lot of walkers and joggers, particularly the busier portion from Wheaton to Maywood that runs through a lot of residential areas. Most pedestrians understand that you need to make room for bikes on this trail, as there are hundreds of cyclists on any given day.

gregf83 

My comment was in the context of a video posted earlier that had a cyclist riding on a crowded Mup ringing his bell every 5 seconds expecting everyone to clear a path for him. I found it annoying. I wouldn't ride on busy MUPs like that and on the ones I ride it's easier for me to slow down. When I do that a bell is not necessary.

Bearhawker

I guess it depends on the bell - and the voice. I recently yelled at a car driver who turned left in front of me, coming on to the road I was already on (I guess screaming yellow jacket & helmet and blinking white light wasn't enough to see me?).

Must have been loud - people came out of the nearby grocery store I was heading to to see what was going on.

A church bell might have been louder than that, but they're hard to carry around on a bike.

lol

njkayaker

And even these are much wider than many MUPs.

Roads are often much wider than MUPs.

So, on a road one can often pass at a much larger difference than on a MUP. So, yes, the method one uses could be different. Obviously.

People on roads tend to be much more wary/aware of other traffic too.

njkayaker

Using a tool badly isn't the fault of the tool.